I would sooner marry the first ploughboy I see, it is now eleven; while you have been. could find in the fields." "Julie, --- you need not insult him." "I will have no more of your Julie; and I will have no more of you." As she said this she rose from her chair, and walked about the room. "You have betrayed me, and there shall be an end of it." "Betrayed you! what nonsense you talk. In what have I betrayed you?" "You set him upon my track here, though you knew I desired to avoid him." "And is that all? I was coming here to this detestable island, and I told my brother. That is my offence, and then you talk of betraying! Julie, you sometimes are a goose. "Very often, no doubt; but, Madame Gordeloup, if you please we will be geese apart for the future." if wish it." you "Oh, certainly; "I do wish it." "It cannot hurt me. I can choose my friends anywhere. The world is open to me to go where I please into society. I am not at a loss." All this Lady Ongar well understood, but she could bear it without injury to her temper. Such revenge was to be expected from such a woman. 66 I do not want you to be at a loss," she said. "I only want you to understand that after what has this evening occurred between your brother and me, our acquaintance had better cease." "And I am to be punished for my brother?" "You said just now that it would be no punishment, and I was glad to hear it. Society is, as you say, open to you, and you will lose nothing." "Of course society is open to me. I committed myself? I am not about for my lovers by all the town. should I be at a loss? No." Have talked Why wandering about alone with my brother in the dark No; I will not go so early morning as that. To-morrow is Saturday - you was to remain till Tuesday." "You may do as you please. I shall go at eight to morrow.' 66 Very well. You go at eight, very well. And who will pay for the beels' when you are gone, Lady Ongar? "I have already ordered the bill up tomorrow morning. If you will allow me to offer you twenty pounds, that will bring you to London when you please to follow." "Twenty pounds! What is twenty pounds? No; I will not have your twenty pounds." And she pushed away from her the two notes which Lady Ongar had already put upon the table. "Who is to pay me for the loss of all my time? Tell me that. I have devoted myself to you. Who will pay me for that?" "Not I certainly, Madame Gordeloup." "Not you! You will not pay me for my time; for a whole year I have been devoted to you! You will not pay me, and you send me away in this way? By Gar, you will be made to pay, through the nose." As the interview was becoming unpleas ant, Lady Ongar took her candle and went away to bed, leaving the twenty pounds on the table. As she left the room she knew that the money was there, but she could not bring herself to pick it up and restore it to her pocket. It was improbable, she thought, that Madame Gordeloup would leave it to the mercy of the waiters; and the chances were that the notes would go into the pocket for which they were intended. And such was the result. Sophie, when she was left alone, got up from her seat, and stood for some moments on the rug, making her calculations. That Lady Ongar should be very angry about Count Pateroff's presence Sophie had expected; but she had not expected that her friend's anger would be carried to such extremity that she would pronounce a sentence of banishment for life. But, perhaps, after all, it might be well for Sophie herself that such sentence should be carried out. This fool of a woman with her income, her park, and her rank, was going to give herself, -so said Sophie to herself, to a young, handsome, proud pig of a fellow, so Sophie called him, who had already shown himself to be Sophie's enemy, and who would certainly find no place for Sophie Gordeloup within his house. Might it not be well that the quarrel should be consummated now, such compensation being obtained as might possibly be extracted. Sophie certainly knew a good deal, which it might be for the convenience of the future husband to keep dark-or convenient for the future wife that the future husband should not know. Terms might be yet had, although Lady Ongar had refused to pay anything beyond that trumpery twenty pounds. Terms might be had; or, indeed, it might be that Lady Ongar herself, when her anger was over, might sue for a reconciliation. Or Sophie, and this idea occurred as Sophie herself became a little despondent after long calculation, Sophie herself might acknowledge herself to be wrong, begging pardon, and weeping on her friend's neck. Perhaps it might be worth while to make some further calculation in bed. Then Sophie, softly drawing the notes towards her as a cat might have done, and hiding them somewhere about her person, also went to her room. In the morning Lady Ongar prepared herself for starting at eight o'clock, and, as a part of that preparation, had her breakfast brought to her upstairs. When the time was up, she descended to the sittingroom on the way to the carriage, and there she found Sophie also prepared for a jour ney. "I am going too. You will let me go?" said Sophie. "Certainly," said Lady Ongar. "I proposed to you to do so yesterday." "You should not be be so hard upon your poor friend," said Sophie. This was said in the hearing of Lady Ongar's maid and of two waiters, and Lady Ongar made no reply to it. When they were in the carriage together, the maid being then stowed away in a dickey or rumble behind, Sophie again whined and was repentant. "Julie, you should not be so hard upon your poor Sophie." "It seems to me that the hardest things said were spoken by you." "Then I will beg your pardon. I am impulsive. I do not restrain myself. When I am angry I say I know not what. If I said any words that were wrong, I will apologize, and beg to be forgiven, there, on my knees." And, as she spoke, the adroit little woman contrived to get herself down upon her knees on the floor of the carriage. "There; say that I am forgiven; say that Sophie is pardoned." The little woman had calculated that even should her Julie pardon her, Julie would hardly condescend to ask for the two ten-pound notes. "That is such nonsense. Madame Gordeloup, you are disgracing yourself by your proceedings " "Oh! disgracing myself, am I?" In saying this, Sophie picked herself up from among the dressing-cases, and recovered her seat. "I am disgracing myself! Well, I know very well whose disgrace is the most talked about in the world, yours or mine. Disgracing myself; and from you? What did your husband say of you himself?" Lady Ongar began to feel that even a very short journey might be too long. Sophie was now quite up, and was wriggling herself on her seat, adjusting her clothes which her late attitude had disarranged, not in the most graceful manner. “Yes, "You shall see," she continued. you shall see. Tell me of disgrace! I have only disgraced myself by being with you. Ah,- very well. Yes; I will get out. As for being quiet, I shall be quiet whenever I like it. I know when to talk and when to hold my tongue. Disgrace!" So saying, she stepped out of the carriage, leaning on the arm of a boatman who had come to the door, and who had heard her last words. CHAPTER XXX. DOODLES IN MOUNT STREET. It may be imagined that all this did not contribute much to the comfort of Lady Ongar. They were now on the little pier CAPTAIN CLAVERING and Captain Boodle at Yarmouth, and in five minutes every had, as may be imagined, discussed at great one there knew who she was, and knew also length and with much frequency the results that there had been some disagreement be- of the former captain's negotiations with tween her and the little foreigner. The the Russian spy, and it had been declared eyes of the boatmen, and of the drivers, and strongly by the latter captain, and ultimateof the other travellers, and of the natives go- ly admitted by the former, that those results ing over to the market at Lymington, were were not satisfactory. Seventy pounds had all on her, and the eyes also of all the idlers been expended, and, so to say, nothing had of Yarmouth who had congregated there to been accomplished. It was in vain that watch the despatch of the early boat. But Archie, unwilling to have it thought that he she bore it well, seating herself, with her had been worsted in diplomacy, argued that maid beside her, on one of the benches on with these political personages, and especialthe deck, and waiting there with patience ly with Russian political personages, the till the boat should start. Sophie once or ambages were everything, that the pretwice muttered the word "disgrace!" but beyond that she remained silent. liminaries were in fact the whole, and that when they were arranged, the thing was done. They crossed over the little channel with- Doodles proved to demonstration that the out a word, and without a word made their thing was not done, and that seventy pounds way up to the railway-station. Lady Ongar was too much for mere preliminaries. "My had been too confused to get tickets for dear fellow," he said, speaking I fear with some their journey at Yarmouth, but had paid on scorn in his voice, "where are you? That's board the boat for the passage of the three what I want to know. Where are you? persons herself, her maid, and Sophie. Just nowhere." This was true. All that But, at the station at Lymington, the more Archie had received from Madame Gordeimportant business of taking tickets for the loup in return for his last payment, was an journey to London became necessary. Lady intimation that no immediate day could be Ongar had thought of this on her journey at present named for a renewal of his peracross the water, and, when at the railway-sonal attack upon the countess; but that a station, gave her purse to her maid, whisper- day might be named when he should next ing her orders. The girl took three first-come to Mount Street, -provision, of course, class tickets, and then going gently up to being made that he should come with a due Madame Gordeloup, offered one to that qualification under his glove. Now the lady. "Ah, yes; very well; I understand," said Sophie, taking the ticket. "I shall take this;" and she held the ticket up in her hand, as though she had some specially mysterious purpose in accepting it. She got into the same carriage with Lady Ongar and her maid, but spoke no word on her journey up to London. At Basingstoke she had a glass of sherry, for which Lady Ongar's maid paid. Lady Ongar had telegraphed for her carriage, which was waiting for her, but Sophie betook herself to a cab. "Shall I pay the cabman, ma'am?" said the maid. 66 Yes," said Sophie, " or stop. It will be half-a-crown. You had better give me the half-crown." The maid did so, and in this way the careful Sophie added another shilling to her store, -over and above the twenty pounds, knowing well that the fare to Mount Street was eighteen-pence. - original basis on which Archie was to carry on his suit had been arranged to be this, that Lady Ongar should be made to know that he was there; and the way in which Doodles had illustrated this precept by the artistic and allegorical use of his heel was still fresh in Archie's memory. The meeting in which they had come to that satisfactory understanding had taken place early in the spring, and now June was coming on, and the countess certainly did not as yet know that her suitor was there! If anything was to be done by the Russian spy it should be done quickly, and Doodles did not refrain from expressing his opinion that his friend was "putting his foot into it," and 66 making a mull of the whole thing." Now Archie Clavering was a man not eaten up by the vice of self-confidence, but prone rather to lean upon his friends and anxious for the aid of counsel in difficulty. "What the devil is a fellow to do?" he asked. 66 Perhaps I had better give it all up. Everybody says that she is as proud as Lucifer; and, after all, nobody knows what rigs she has been up to." But this was by no means the view which Doodles was inclined to take. He was a man who in the field never gave up a race because he was thrown out at the start, having perceived that patience would achieve as much, perhaps, as impetuosity. He had ridden many a waiting race, and had won some of them. He was never so sure of his hand at billiards as when the score was strong against him. Always fight whilst there's any fight left in you," was a maxim with him. He never surrendered a bet as lost, till the evidence as to the facts was quite conclusive, and had taught himself to regard any chance, be it ever so remote, as a kind of property. 66 Never say die," was his answer to Archie's remark. "You see, Clavvy, you have still a few good cards, and you can never know what a woman really mears till you have popped yourself. As to what she did when she was away, and all that, you see when a woman has got seven thousand a year in her own right, it covers a multitude of sins." "Of course, I know that." "And why should a fellow be uncharitable? If a man is to believe all that he hears, by George, they're all much of a muchness. For my part I never believe anything. I always suppose every horse will run to win; and though there may be a cross now and again, that's the surest line to go upon. D'you understand me now?" Archie said that of course he understood him; but I fancy that Doodles had gone a little too deep for Archie's intellect. "I should say, drop this woman, and go at the widow yourself at once.” "And lose all my seventy pounds for nothing!" "You're not soft enough to suppose that you'll ever get it back again, I hope ? Archie assured his friend that he was not soft enough for any such hope as that, and then the two remained silent for a while, deeply considering the posture of the affair. I'll tell you what I'll do for you," said Doodles; "and upon my word I think it will be the best thing." "And what's that? "I'll go to this woman myself.” "What; to Lady Ongar?" "No; but to the spy, as you call her. Principals are never the best for this kind of work. When a man has to pay the money himself he can never make so good a bar- can go "You'll take some with you, then?" "Well, yes; that is, if it's convenient. We were talking of going two or three hundred pounds, you know, and you've only gone seventy as yet. Suppose you hand me over the odd thirty. If she gets it out of me easy, tell me my name isn't Boodle." There was much in this that was distasteful to Captain Clavering, but at last he submitted, and handed over the thirty pounds to his friend. Then there was considerable doubt whether the ambassador should announce himself by a note, but it was decided at last that his arrival should not be expected. If he did not find the lady at home or disengaged on the first visit, or on the second, he might on the third or the fourth. He was a persistent, patient little man, and assured his friend that he would certainly see Madame Gordeloup before a week had passed over their heads. On the occasion of his first visit to Mount Street, Sophie Gordeloup was enjoying her retreat in the Isle of Wight. When he called the second time she was in bed, the fatigue of her journey on the previous day, - the day on which she had actually risen at seven o'clock in the morning, - having oppressed her much. She had returned in the cab alone, and had occupied herself much on the same evening. Now that she was to be parted from her Julie, it was needful that she should be occupied. She wrote a long letter to her brother, much more confidential than her letters to him had lately been, telling him how much she had suffered on his behalf, and describing to him with great energy the perverseness, malignity, and general pigheadedness of her late friend. Then she wrote an anonymous letter to Mrs. Burton, whose name and address she had learned, after having ascertained from Archie the fact of Harry Clavering's engagement. In this letter she described the wretched wiles by which that horrid woman Lady Ongar was struggling to keep Harry and Miss Burton apart. "It is very bad, but it is true," said the diligent little woman. "She has been seen in his embrace; I know it." After that she dressed and went out into society, the society of which she had boasted as being open to her, to the house of some hanger-on of some embassy, and listened, and whispered, and laughed when some old sinner joked with her, and talked poetry to a young man who was foolish and lame, but who had some money, and got a glass of wine and a cake for nothing, and so was very busy; and on her return home calculated that her cab-hire for the evening had been judiciously spent. But her diligence had been so great that when Captain Boodle called the next morning at twelve o'clock she was still in bed. Had she been in dear Paris, or in dearer Vienna, that would not have hindered her from receiving the visit; but in pigheaded London this could not be done; and, therefore, when she had duly scrutinized Captain Boodle's card, and had learned from the servant that Captain Boodle desired to see herself on very particular business, she made an appointment with him for the following day. On the following day at the same hour Doodles came and was shown up into her room. He had scrupulously avoided any smartness of apparel, calculating that a Newmarket costume would be, of all dresses, the most efficacious in filling her with an idea of his smartness; whereas Archie had probably injured himself much by his polished leather boots, and general newness of clothing. Doodles, therefore, wore a cutaway coat, a coloured shirt with a fogle round his neck, old brown trowsers that fitted very tightly round bis legs, and was careful to take no gloves with him. He was a man with a small bullet head, who wore his hair cut very short, and had no other beard than a slight appendage on his lower chin. He certainly did possess a considerable look of smartness, and when he would knit his brows and nod his head, some men were apt to think that it was not easy to get on the soft side of him. "Oh, Captain Bood-dle; it is English name, I suppose ?" "Certainly, ma'am, certainly. Altogether English, I believe. Our Boodles come out of Warwickshire; small property near Leamington, doosed small, I'm sorry to say." She looked at him very hard, and was altogether unable to discover what was the nature or probable mode of life of the young man before her. She had lived much in England, and had known Englishmen of many classes, but she could not remember that she had ever become conversant with such a one as he who was now before her. Was he a gentleman, or might he be a housebreaker? "A doosed small property near Leamington," she said, repeating the words after him. "Oh!" "But my visit to you, ma'am, has nothing to do with that." "Nothing to do with the small property." "Nothing in life." "Then, Captain Bood-dle, what may it have to do with?" Hereupon Doodles took a chair, not having been invited to go through that ceremony. According to the theory created in her mind at the instant, this man was not at all like an English captain. Captain is an unfortunate title, somewhat equivalent to the foreign count, unfortunate in this respect, that it is easily adopted by many whose claims to it are very slight. Archie Clavering, with his polished leather boots, had looked like a captain, - had come up to her idea of a captain, but this man! The more she regarded him, the stronger in her mind became the idea of the housebreaker. "My business, ma'am, is of a very delicate nature, of a nature very delicate indeed. But I think that you and I, who understand the world, may soon come to understand each other." "Oh, you understand the world. Very well, sir. Go on." 66 Now, ma'am, money is money, you know." "And a goose is a goose; but what of that?" Sophie on this occasion was not arrayed with that becoming negligence which had graced her appearance when Captain Clavering had called. She knew that a visitor was coming, and the questionably white wrapper had been exchanged for an ordinary dress. This was regretted, rather than otherwise, by Captain Boodle, who had received from Archie a description of the lady's appearance, and who had been anxious to see the spy in her proper and peculiar habiliments. It must be remembered that Sophie knew nothing of her present visitor, and was altogether unaware that he was in any way connected with Captain Clavering. "You are Captain Boddle," she said, look-you go on?" ing hard at Doodles, as he bowed to her on entering the room. "Yes; a goose is a goose, and some people are not geese. Nobody, ma'am, would think of calling you a goose." "I hope not. It would be so uncivil, even an Englishman would not say it. Will 99 "I think you have the pleasure of knowing Lady Ongar? " "Knowing who?" said Sophie, almost shrieking. FOURTH SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. III. 40. |